Reasons for child usage in armed conflicts and their impact on internalisation of related international norms in selected states

The use of child soldiers in armed conflicts is considered one of the worst forms of child labour a grave violation of human rights. Even though the international law addresses this issue rather extensively and the norm prohibiting the recruitment and use of child soldiers in armed conflicts emerged more than thirty years ago for the first time, its implementation into domestic law has fallen behind. The aim of this dissertation is to identify political, economic, social, military, and environmental characteristics that could have had an impact on successful enforcement and use of this norm within states where the utilization of child soldiers persists. To eliminate contemporary research gaps and incorporate different perspectives, combination of quantitative (cluster analysis) and qualitative methods of analysis (multi-case study) was used. The cluster analysis allowed the consideration of aspects difficult to interpret with qualitative method only. For four selected states facing the persisting use of child soldiers, the multi-case study further developed outcomes of the cluster analysis and identified features with potential impact on internalisation of the norm prohibiting the recruitment and use of child soldiers. In particular, the prerequisite of the internalisation were political characteristics affecting domestic political situation in examined countries. The willingness to deal with this issue often depended on the economy, poverty rate, security threats (including outbreak/escalation of the conflict and number of refugees and internally displaced persons), access to education, and child labour.